Lamp holders for christmas trees



June 14, 1955 E. G. HoLM LAMP HOLDERS FOR CHRISTMAS TREES Filed Feb. 3, 1949 vv v United States Patent O LAMP HOLDERS FOR CHRISTMAS TREES Erik Gunnar Holm, Hagalund, Sweden, assignor to Lumalampan Aktiebolag, Stockholm, Sweden, a corporation of Sweden Application February 3, 1949, Serial No. 74,277

Claims priority, application Sweden December 17, 1948 3 Claims. (Cl. 240-52.4)

The present invention relates to a holder for Christmas tree illumination.

A holder of this kind usually consists of a lampholder device in the external shape of a candle provided with means for the attachment of a miniature lamp with the help of its socket. In addition, the holder is tted with a spring clamp for fixing it to the Christmas tree.

One purpose of the invention is to produce a holder comprising simply constructed parts which can easily be assembled to form the finished holder.

Another purpose of the invention is to construct the lampholder of such parts as can be conveniently assembled as a complete holder solely by locking the parts together mechanically, that is to say, without the application of soldering, cementing or any other similar jointing methods.

Another purpose of the invention is to produce a holder assembled in such a manner that its parts cannot be detached from one another without the use of special tools. By this means a lampholder can be constructed which is satisfactory from the point of view of electrical safety.

In a preferred form of construction the lampholder consists of a sleeve having the external form of a candle provided with means for the attachment of a miniature lamp with the help of its socket. In the sleeve contact springs which are separated from one another are arranged to cooperate with the contacts of the lamp socket. In front of the sleeve a base is arranged provided with recesses which support the lower ends of the contact springs. The said sleeve and base are combined by a ring which locks them together. In addition, a spring clamp is provided for the attachment of the holder to the Christmas tree, this spring clamp being combined with the base of the holder by means of a flexible joint.

Other forms of construction and parts characteristic for the holder will become apparent from the following description of one form of carrying out the invention shown in the accompanying drawing.

Fig. l shows a holder according to the invention in longitudinal section.

Fig. 2 is a view of a holder ring seen from above.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section through the base of the holder at right-angles to the section in Fig. l.

Fig. 4 shows the base from above.

Fig. 5 is an elevation of an element for supporting the contact springs at the top.

Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate in perspective the upper parts of the contact springs.

Fig. 8 shows a spring for the holder clamp in side elevation.

Fig. 9 shows the same spring from above.

The miniature incandescent lamp for Christmas tree illumination has a casing 1 which narrows at the top and a miniature screw socket 8. The lamps supply leads 48 are fused into a bead 5 inside the casing. In addition, a supporting wire 3 is fused into the bead and forms a loop 49 at the top. An incandescent body 2 mounted ICC in reversed V-form is welded at its ends to the leads 48, its top being supported in the loop 49. In view of the fact that a Christmas tree illumination consists of seriesconnected lamps it may be found preferable to provide the lamps with current bridges as shown. A current bridge 6 of this kind is illustrated and consists of an electrically oxidised aluminum strip tightly clamped over the parts of the leads 48 located in the lamp casing.

The lampholder sleeve 9 consists of a tube of preferably white or ivory synthetic resin such as white polystyrol for example. At its upper part the sleeve is provided with an internal projection 47 forming a thread 7 for the reception of the-lamp socket 8. A pair of contact springs 12 and 44 respectively project up in the interior of the sleeve from recesses 14 in a base 21. These contact springs are each fitted with a pair of internal devices 54 and 55' respectively. Between the contact springs a disc 11 of insulating material is mounted and is provided with recesses 52 corresponding in width to the space between the gripped portions of the respective contact springs. The contact spring 12 passes up into the disc in the form of a part 10 which is bent in towards the lamp socket and lies against the sidecontact of the socket. The upper part of the spring 44 is bent in above the disc so that it rests on the upper side of the disc and lies against the bottom contact 46 of the lamp socket.

The sleeve 9 takes the form of a flange 41 at the bottom. The base 21 is similarly extended at the top to form a flange 19 with an external screwthread. A ring 42 is threaded on the sleeve, which by means of a projection 17 is supported by the flange 41 of the sleeve and is provided with an internal thread 40 which can be screwed to the base flange 19 in such a way that the locking ring 42 thereby combines the sleeve 9 with the base 21.

The base 21 forms two pockets 14 for the lower ends of the contact springs 12 and 44. The recesses are produced by a depression pressed into the upper part of the base and into which a pair of bosses project from two opposite sides. The ilange 19 is provided on both sides of the pockets 14 with longitudinal grooves 20. The leads 23 and 38 to the contact springs 12 and 44 are laid in these grooves. The ends 13 and 43 of the leads from which the insulation has been removed are rmly soldered or welded to the contact springs 12 and 44. On drawing up the locking ring the insulated parts of the leads are tightly clamped between the inner wall 39 of the groove 20 in the base 21 and the lower inner edge 15 of the sleeve 9.

The locking ring 42 is provided with longitudinal grooves 18 and the flange 19 on the base 21 has two holes 51, each adapted for the use of suitable tools so that when assembling the lampholder parts 9, 21 and 42 they can be conveniently screwed together. As the base is located substantially inside the locking ring, no grip can be obtained in any attempt to separate the parts without tools.

On its underside the base 21 forms a recess 22. A pin 24 is fixed in the base, its outer end forming a bulb 33. The spring clamp for the lampholder is composed of an upper part 32 and a lower part 29, the clamping portions of which are constructed with teeth 31 for the purpose of attachment to the branch of a Christmas tree. The upper part 32 forms a raised portion 37 on which the base 21 is supported by means of the collar surrounding the recess 22. In the raised portion 37 a hole 36 is provided for the insertion of the pin 24 and the bulb 33. The two parts 32 and 29 of the spring clamp are each fitted with overlapping strips 26 through which a spindle 30 is threaded. The spiral spring 27 is wound round the spindle, and its upper end 25 is bent to form a wire yoke having the parts 3.5 and 34 which lie against both the upper and lower sides of the bulb 33. This portion of the spiral spring is adapted to hold the pin downwards. The lower end 28 of the spiral spring rests against the inner end portion of the spring clamps lower part 29. The wire yoke at the upper end of the spiral spring is arranged to snap over the bulb 33 easily when the latter is passed clown into the opening 36. For this purpose the end is wound in the form of a loop 34 which is not completely closed and changes into an upwardly bent portion 55, whereupon the wire passes on in the form of an upper loop 35 lying in a plane above the loop 34 and being wound in the opposite direction to the latter. On the introduction of the pin into the spring clamp the parts 34, 55 and 35 of the spring are held in an upward direction by means of suitable tools. The same spiral spring thus serves to produce a suitable clamping eect at the spring clamp of the holder for fastening around a branch of the Christmas tree and to produce a mutual resilient locking etect between the lamp holder and pin joint.

What I claim is:

1,. A lamp holder comprising au elongated sleeve simulating a candle, said sleeve having internal means at one end for receiving and holding a lamp and eX- ternally projecting abutment means at the opposite end, a separable base member having an externally threaded portion and channels extending through the base for lead wires, spring Contact members carried by said base and extending in spaced relation through said sleeve to contact the terminals of a lamp mounted in the sleeve,

said contact members having portions within said sleeve for connection with said lead wires and an internally threaded clamping ring threadedly engaging said base member and having a portion encircling said sleeve and engaging the abutment means thereon to clamp the sleeve and the base member together in engaging clamping relation with said lead wires.

2. A lamp holder as defined in claim 1 in which the channels in said base member are in the form of open grooves the ends of which adjacent to said sleeve are so located with reference to the sleeve that lead wires extending through the channels for connection with said spring contacts are clamped between the base and the adjacent end of the sleeve when the parts are assembled.

3. A lamp holder as defined in claim 1 in which said ring and said base member are provided with recesses for engagement by special tools for threading the parts together in tight engagement, whereby to provide an assembly requiring such special tools to disassemble it and thereby prevent accidental disassembly of the parts.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 676,289 Wagner June 11, 1901 1,070,292 Robb Aug. 12, 1913 1,141,152 Stahl June 1, 1915 1,238,459 Tregoning Aug. 28, 1917 1,244,615 Kornbau Oct. 30, 1917 1,252,587 Klein Jan. 8, 1918 1,456,683 Thurnauer May 29, 1923 1,722,737 Eckstein et al. July 30, 1929 1,954,756 Kidston et al. Apr. 10, 1934 2,071,897 Pazzano Feb. 23, 1937 2,284,788 Wolf June 2, 1942 2,465,700 Tuttle Mar. 29, 1949 2,482,656 Conroy et al. Sept. 20, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 18,760 Netherlands Feb. 15, 1929 330,269 Great Britain June 4, 1930 

